Wedding in New York

We packed our bags and headed off to New York this past weekend. The kids stayed with Sheryl Thursday night and with Dad and Trina for the weekend. We left Thursday night and met Jeff and Renee at their place in West Bloomfield. Jeff driving, we headed off through Canada. We got through customs easily enough both ways and arrived in Watertown, New York around 2:30 am. Whew! The next day there was a scheduled boat tour through the 1000 Islands and Boldt Castle in Alexandria Bay. Of course, I forgot my camera, sorry, but it was beautiful. The area is very nice with big homes to ooooh and aaaah at. The castle was built around 1900 by a man who wanted to honor the love of his life. He put the construction to a halt when she unexpectedly passed away. What is left is a very large castle with many unfinished room. Preservation people have finished a few of the main floor rooms to give us an idea of what it would look like. The castle had a magnificent stariway very similar to that in the Titanic complete with a colorful glass ceiling. Gorgeous. There is even a smaller castle that was built for the children with a bowling alley and everything. Very neat.
Later that day, Ben and I decided to treat ourselves to a date night with just the two of us. We asked the front desk for a nice local restaurant and off we went. While waiting for our table we went to the bar to get a drink. We ran into some of the Owen family (Jeff's aunts and uncles, etc.) They invited us to join them and we found it hard to resist. We had a nice evening chatting with some people we don't know very well, but were very easy to talk with. It was lovely. After dinner we went back to the hotel and ran into everyone (they all had rehearsal dinner) at the hotel bar. I was enjoying myself thoroughly by now. :) The next day was the wedding. It was at a small, yet beautiful church nearby. The ceremony was nice and afterward we went back to the hotel. While waiting for the shuttle to take us to the reception, we hung out with some of Ben's family. We watched football....I don't need to say any more....it was ugly. Then we took the provided shuttle to the hall which was in the large local military base at Fort Drum. We danced and danced and had a great time. Sunday we packed up and headed for home around 9:30 am. We got home, after picking up the kids, around 9:00 pm. What a long drive home, but the weekend was worth it. I guess Barrett was really sick, so we felt bad that we were away from him, but we did need the time for just the two of us. It was so nice and it made me realize even more how much I love my husband and my family. :)